Organic for All at Holyrood

Scotland is leading the way in the UK when it comes to organic farming, with six years of steady growth in land area.

In the past year alone, official data shows that more than half of the increase in the UK organic land was north of the border.

This doesn’t happen by accident; it is the result of three big factors, with one missing piece of the puzzle still to come.

Those factors are high-level political backing from Scottish Government, consistent policy support for farmers switching to organic, and a decision in 2023 to suspend limits on the amount of land that can be brought into conversion.

This had led to the increase in land area, but what is now needed is a strategy that can help to develop markets for organic producers and tackle blockages in the supply chain such as limitations in processing capacity and infrastructure.

The good news is that the Scottish Government has committed to doing just that, with the launch of a new Organic Action Plan expected soon.

Why we need ‘Organic for All’

Despite all this positivity, organic is not always available, accessible, and affordable for everyone in Scotland.

Too often, people don’t see organic produce on shelves of their local supermarket or retail outlet, or if they do, they find that it can be priced higher than non-organic.

The reasons for this are complex, as with anything in our food system.

A big part of the price differential is that the external impacts of industrialised food production – such as environmental harm or poor animal welfare – are not factored in at the point of sale. There is really no such thing as cheap food, only hidden costs.

There are also challenges with economies of scale, which creates additional complications and expense in processing and distribution.

The solutions, like the challenges, are also complex. And like any other positive change in the food system, require collaboration and partnership working.

At Soil Association, we are determined to make organic the norm, to bring it from the margins to the mainstream.

So last week in the Scottish Parliament, we held an event to highlight all these issues and to celebrate some fantastic success stories from the sector.

Titled ‘Organic for All’, our exhibition and evening reception demonstrated examples where the availability, accessibility and affordability of organic has been improved.

Our host was Colin Smyth, Scottish Labour MSP for South Scotland, who spoke passionately about the importance of organic in helping to meet public policy objectives around high quality food production, animal welfare, biodiversity gain and climate mitigation and adaptation.

Panellists included organic farmers and growers, businesses taking raw organic materials and developing new products for market and public sector caterers and cooks serving fresh and local organic food.

Give Peas a Chance

Our first panel covered the Give Peas a Chance project, where a partnership approach has taken the humble organic pea from farm to fork in schools across Aberdeen City.
Our audience heard from farmer Phil Swire, from Balmakewan Farm in Aberdeenshire, Lucie Wardle, former supply chain development manager at the Soil Association Scotland Food for Life programme, and Brenda Zeitsman (cook in charge) and Susan Bailey (catering advisor) from Aberdeen City Council.

This project, funded by Sustain’s Bridging the Gap scheme, took organic split peas into school meals – with a wide variety of recipes that provided a hit with the children, including pea muffins!

It highlighted how peas can be a low-cost, sustainable source of protein in school meals that supports local growers, all while improving the health of the soil by naturally fixing nitrogen.

The project also underlined the processing challenge – with the harvested peas being sent all the way to Lincolnshire for processing and back up to north-east Scotland for consumption. Lots of work still to do, but an undoubted success story.

OR-ganic rape seed oil

Next up was the fantastic story of a farmer-led producer organisation that has achieved what many had suggested was impossible – successfully cultivating an organic oil seed rape in Scotland. Inspired by a visit to Sweden, the growers took this raw material to market with a new product – OR-ganic cold pressed oil – in a partnership with Ed and Lorna Smith and Norvite, feed specialists near Oldmeldrum in Aberdeenshire.

The award-winning oil – the only one of its kind in the UK – is now a firm favourite of chefs and restaurants across the country.

Lorna was joined on the panel by farmer Murray Cooper and chair for the session Roger Baird, another farmer who also chairs the Scottish Organic Producers Association (SOPA). The trio discussed the process of developing the product – the producer-centred partnership approach, and the success to date.

Finding routes to market

Our final panel took a closer look at two Soil Association licensees, Locavore and Ishga.

Locavore is a social enterprise based in Glasgow which supplies organic veg boxes across the Central Belt in Scotland, delivering to customers from Ayrshire to Edinburgh and most places in between. Originally growing in and around Glasgow, the business recently moved to a new 20-acre site at Barnhill Farm.

Reuben Chesters told the audience about a social impact report Locavore published last year, which challenged some of the assumptions about the organic consumer. The data showed that 28.4% of respondents indicated their annual household income was under £30k (half of those were under £20k) while only 25.4% said it was over £70k.

Meanwhile, Leon Trayling, Director at Ishga, introduced a different side to the organic market. His company takes organic seaweed harvested from the Hebridean coast to market in a range of skincare products.

Leon explained that the name Ishga is derived from the Gaelic word for water, and that four types of seaweed are hand harvested, containing natural antioxidants that are beneficial for skin. Leon also discussed the importance of the Soil Association COSMOS organic logo to confirm the sustainability credentials of the product.

Next steps

With positive feedback from a wide-ranging audience of farmers and growers, MSPs, academics, local authority and Scottish Government officials as well as representatives from food industry bodies, the event can be marked as a success.

However, as Colin Smyth noted in his closing remarks, “organic is not a luxury or a side line, it is a blueprint for the food system we need.”

This starts with delivery of the Scottish Government commitment to a new Organic Action Plan to support further growth in the sector.

And it will require much more of that partnership working to ensure we make progress on making organic more affordable, available and accessible for all.

Fundraising for Organic for All across the UK

The organic sector offers a globally scalable approach to sustainable food and farming and many countries recognise the benefits of organic to people and planet.
But across the UK, organic is not always valued by government and retailers, nor is it available to the whole of society. It is often sold as an expensive and luxury item, unaffordable for most people.

Our multi-year Organic For All programme seeks to change this through 3 strands of work:

Strand 1. Understanding the Economics of Organic

This 18-month research project will provide data to advocate for more effective strategies to reduce price for the end customer and ultimately help to grow the organic sector in the UK.

The cost of this strand of work is estimated at £230,000

Strand 2. Addressing supply chain barriers in the public sector

This 3-year delivery project will address challenges in supply, access, and affordability of organic within the public sector, ultimately helping more catering organisations to source organic and enable routes to market for organic producers.

The cost of this strand of work is estimated at £1.5million

Strand 3. Collaborative sector development

This 3-year delivery project will extend and scale our sector development activities, ultimately helping more farmers to convert to organic production and reducing costs to purchasing organic food to customers.

The cost of this strand of work is estimated at £280k.

To find out more, please contact the development team at development@soilassociation.org